Teamwork leads Performance Chemical to larger location

Paul Wiseman

Published 3:07 pm, Thursday, September 5, 2013

When starting Performance Chemical Company five years ago, brothers Burl (the elder) and Jerry Fuller decided to flip a coin to see which one would be the firm's president and which one its CEO. Jerry, the CEO, joked, "I lost."

Both were already longtime veterans of the oilfield chemical field, having worked and managed for companies like Champion, BJ Services, Weatherford and others as one company would buy out another over the years.

They both played football through college and Jerry went on to coach high school football after graduation. About his move from that career to the oilfield, he recalled, "I started teaching and coaching football in Plainview, Texas and after my first daughter was born, I thought, that looks expensive, I'm gonna find something else to do, so I moved to the oilfield." He migrated to the oilfield chemical business in 1976.

Burl had become a stockbroker and was in San Francisco when he also decided it was time for a career change. Jerry invited him to return to West Texas and join him in the chemical business, which he did in 1978. They spent 15 years with Champion before moving to other companies.

Performance came into existence five years ago when a former employee of the brothers approached Jerry with the report that a group was forming a new chemical company from the joining of what had already gone from four to three separate firms. Jerry thought it sounded like a good idea and recruited Burl to come along with him, necessitating the aforementioned coin flip.

The now five-year-old concern has just over 50 people which, the brothers noted, is approximately the same number as the three companies combined for when they started.

"Our main yard is here (the new location at 2600 E. I-20, Odessa, just east of the old TI plant), and we've got a yard in Artesia, N.M., we've got a yard in San Angelo and we've got a yard in Iraan."

As of today Performance is still in the process of moving into the I-20 building from their previous lot in Odessa. At interview time there were no pictures on the wall, nor were there doorknobs on the door of the room in which the interview was conducted. Exit was achieved by Burl reaching under the door with his hand to pull it open. The building is situated on a 10-acre plot. The front five acres are dedicated to the chemical business and the back five will soon be used for frac water recycling as soon as the brothers find a suitable vendor whose equipment they can represent.

They are completing the process of consolidating the three businesses into one that is almost 100 percent in the Permian Basin. This involves shedding 900 wells near Hazzard, Kentucky, some business in Houston and elsewhere because they feel there is plenty of opportunity in West Texas -- and concentrating locally lets them be more efficient. "It took us five years to downsize," Burl laughed. "Most people are trying to expand, we were trying to downsize."

Jerry explained that they were only downsizing geographically. "We weren't cutting people, keeping the head count about the same. We were just moving them back in here -- the good ones, where the boom's happening."

Here is where the old coaching training comes in, Burl said. They did not want to hire people away from the major chemical and service companies, preferring to train their own people. "We're both educators -- went to school to be coaches, then decided not to, but now we're coaches again," this time coaching employees instead of players.

All the company's sales people are degreed and are computer literate, and all employees receive what Jerry called "a lot of hands-on training."

"It's a lot like coaching football," Burl continued. "You don't just give them a playbook. You teach them how to interpret the playbook and what it actually is."

Continuing the educational theme, Jerry noted that after five years, "Our freshmen are sophomores, our sophomores are juniors, our juniors are seniors..." indicating that the first batch of trainees is now seasoned enough to train the next set of new hires, making the Fullers' job easier. "Our younger guys are stepping up to the plate all the time."

One thing the new employees have not experienced, by and large, is a bust. Joked Burl, "I'd like to see them starve to death for a few years" in order to better appreciate the hyper boom that is in progress today.

On the other hand, said Jerry, one reason he and his brother got into the chemical business and stayed in it is that chemicals suffer less in a bust. Chemicals are used to keep existing wells producing, he noted, and in down times companies drill less but they spend more on chemicals to keep older wells producing.

Expansion is in the future, the brothers agreed, but it will be in ripples extending out from the Basin. Additional offices will be populated with managers and employees trained by the Fullers and their "juniors and seniors" who are steeped in the Performance way, so that even in those extended offices everyone will be on the same page.